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Church directory:

Our new Church directory is now available online, but a special password is required to open it. For security reasons, passwords will be changed from time to time, and must be not be made available to anyone outside of the congregation. Any questions should be directed to the church office.

Domain name:

Our domain name emmanuelstaunton.orgwent into effect in September 2011.

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Do you have any news items or announcements of interest to our congregation? If so, please contact the church secretary, Lucy Dennison. To submit photos or to ask questions about the Web site, please contact the Webmaster, Andrew Clem (clickable e-mail links).

Sunday School

Sunday School classes this year are being coordinated by Katherine Turner, along with several assistants. For details, see the Sunday School Calendar.

Parish News

July, 2015

Report on General Convention

The 78th General Convention met in Salt Lake City from June 24 through July 3 this summer. In one sense you could say it was a family reunion on a colossal scale -- 4000 of your closest family members! Folks from over 100 dioceses came, usually including a bishop or two or three from each diocese and eight deputies, four lay and four clergy. Emily Cox and Shelby Owen both attended as deputies for our Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. Long days and nights, leaving hotel rooms at about seven in the morning and not usually returning until ten or eleven at night. The days consisted of committee meetings, coffee conversations, worship, visits to the exhibit hall, meetings of the House of Deputies, lunches with old and new friends and colleagues, meetings with the HoD again, receptions and dinners sponsored by our bishop or Virginia Theological Seminary or EfM (Education for Ministry) of Sewanee University, and concerts at the Mormon Tabernacle and Cathedral. Some saving graces: having a common faith in Christ, the mile long walk to and from the hotel so we did get our exercise, lots of laughter, having generous alternates offer us a day or afternoon off from business so we could take some time to recharge, visits to St. Mark's Cathedral to see the Illustrated St. John's Bible, where we were given a tour by Bunny Davenport's sister and brother-in-law and could sit in silence in a pew for a few minutes.

A highlight, perhaps the highlight, was the historic election of our new Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, from the Diocese of North Carolina. Curry, a dynamic preacher, who has a great love for the Lord, is the first African American to serve in this role. Some resolutions that passed include a revision of our canons on marriage to include gender neutral language, thereby authorizing same sex marriage, a budget that includes two million dollars for racial reconciliation, preparing plans for revision of both the Book of Common Prayer and Hymnal (this is just the beginning of a likely long process), and a resolution condemning the ruling in the Dominican Republic that makes Haitians born in the D.R. effectively stateless. Hundreds of other resolutions passed and the summary of actions will be available to us in about two more weeks on the General Convention web site. We will have opportunities to share more in the near future. In the mean time, please talk to Emily or Shelby+ if you would like to hear more.

by the Rev. Shelby Owen+

The Diocese of Southwestern Virginia delegation at the General Convention.

NOTE: Please help the office by keeping us informed of the status of people you place on the prayer list.

Emmanuel "word cloud"

Thanks to Steven Cox for soliciting from parish members words that they thought best described our church congregation, and then compiling all of them into a "word cloud." Click on the image to see a full-size version. If that doesn't work, click here instead